Ludhiana, September 29
Some of the engineering branches, which were least preferred by the candidates till recently, are now the most sought-after. Civil engineering is one such example of this phenomenon.

The recent infrastructure boom and swelling orders gained by construction companies has made civil engineering as the most preferred discipline.

According to the experts, the construction companies are finding dearth of qualified civil engineers today.

Prof Kanwaljit Singh, Head of the ECE Department of Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, said civil engineering, now, would be as lucrative a branch as electronics or mechanical engineering.

He said during the past four years, the demand for civil engineers intake had increased from 30 percent to 50 per cent while the pay package had increased as much as by two-and-half-times.

He further
added," Top 10 construction companies need over 2000 fresh graduates and about 25,000 civil engineers during the coming year and the number is growing at 40-50 per cent per year”.

Dr Harpal Singh, Principal, GZS Engineering College, Bathinda, said this year the number of fresh civil engineers taken by L& T ECC was more than 200.

In all, 1500 engineers would be taken by this company. Hindustan Construction Company was also hiring 1000 civil engineers, which include 100 fresh graduates.

“This shows the tremendous growth as compared to previous years. Fresh salaries for civil engineer trainee starts from 1.5 lac to 2.0 lac per annum. This is a positive sign and the branch is now no more an untouchable stream at engineering colleges,” said Dr Singh.

The training and placement wing of the GNDEC has confirmed that this year companies like L&T,
PunjLloyd, Magnum Strips, SIKA (Switzerland-based company), Jindals, etc recently held campus interviews and literally absorbed every civil engineer.

Prof Kanwaljit said, “It may look a strange phenomena for those whose mindset is still tuned to popular branches, but the fact is that the new era for civil engineering is already on the way.

“IIT Roorkee has increased the civil engineering batch size from 60 to 77 from this year, seeing the demand for the branch. The companies are to compete not only with Indian companies but with international giants and this has put pressure on them to go for qualified engineers which they train to achieve world level standards,” he added.

Dr Surinder Bir Singh, Principal
GNDEC, said, “Students have started picking up the branch but at a slower pace as compared to other streams. It may take a little more time to change the mindset of people and candidates to prefer civil engineering as their career.”

Ludhiana, September 29
Koshish-2005, a seven-day-long Inter-Class Literary-cum-Cultural Festival of Punjab College of Technical Education (PCTE), that started on the PCTE campus on September 24, with literary events, will end on October 1. Cultural events added zest to Koshish-2005 in the presence of 11-member delegation from Eastern University, Sri Lanka (academic partner of PCTE) on a 15-day study tour to the PCTE, Ludhiana.

The festival started with case presentation as a first event. Varun, Anureet, Gurjot of MCA first year won first prize, Mosses, Naman and Harpreet Nagi of BCA final year got second prize and Harjot, Mandeep and Prabhdeep of MBA final bagged third prize in the event.

On September 25, the first event was JAM in which Navtej of BBA final bagged the first prize, Varun of MCA first year got the second prize and Saloni of MBA first year third prize. JAM was followed by portfolio management game and the results were: Pankaj and Navdeep of MBA final year bagged the first prize, Rohit and Divjot of MBA first year got the second prize and Hitesh and Nitin of BCA final year won the third prize.

On September 26, in Picto, Madhuri and Preeti of BBA final year bagged the first prize, Harmeet and Satvir of BCA final year second prize and Nikhil and Aman of MBA final year got the third prize. In another event: Dumb Charades, on September 27, Nikhil and Harleen of MBA final year bagged the first prize, Gurmoor and Satvir of BCA final got the second prize and Rohit and Sarrina of BBA second year won the third prize.

Another exciting event of the day was mock press conference in which Mosses of BCA final year, who enacted the role of Kofi Annan, got the first prize, Navtej of BBA final year who enacted as Navjot Singh Sidhu, got the second prize and Mandeep of MBA final year who enacted as Navjot Singh Sidhu again, got the third prize.

Ludhiana, September 29
A two-day declamation competition organised by the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Vichar Manch at Punjabi Bhavan concluded here yesterday. The competitions were held by the manch for urban students to pay tributes to Martyr Bhagat Singh.

Ludhiana, September 29
An anti-pollution rally was organised by the NSS unit of Govt College for Women, Ludhiana. The Principal, Mrs Prabhjot Kaur, inaugurated the rally.
The NSS volunteers and officers participated in the rally with great vigour and enthusiasm which was flagged off from the backgate of GCW.

The Principal stressed on the need for complete health awareness which consists of sanitation, prevention of communicable diseases, personal hygiene, health services for early diagnosis and social machinery for educating individuals about hygiene, health, diet and well being.

Prof Harjeet emphasised, "Water- borne diseases are those diseases which are spread through the agency of drinking and bathing water. Unsafe water is the most common agent for the spread of diseases and make environment unclean."

Prof Preet Daman explained that Air borne diseases were those which were spread through air and included mostly respiratory diseases like sneezing, coughing etc.